Products such as mobile computers, handheld appliances, personal assistants, and cell phones, etc., demand internal components that have low power consumption to preserve battery life, thus insuring longer operating times. Systems requiring high performance, such as desktops and servers are power conscious and more sensitive to high thermal environments. Semiconductors used in these applications that rely on internal voltage generators, such as charge pump systems, are inefficient in terms of power conservation. A typical charge pump system has a voltage generation efficiency rating of ˜25% to 30%. This inefficiency consumes excess power and contributes both to reduced battery life and increased thermal environments.
Semiconductor products such as a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Flash, and Systems on Chip that utilize such memories typically generate internal operating voltages for the memory array. Charge pumps generate these voltages and are used to reduce component external input voltage pin count, which reduces cost. This voltage is higher and/or lower than that supplied via system power supplies or regulators through standard voltage input pins. These voltages are typically generated with an internal charge pump system(s) that increases or decreases the nominal input voltage value.